officer commanding a squadron of the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. He was promoted to captain on 1 July 1946. He then worked in the headquarters of the 6th Airborne Division. Near the end of the British Mandate, he commanded a company of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

Here are the sentences:

It might be explained here that up to this point the stage had not yet been reached whendeliberate attacks on British Army personnel were expected. Thus the defence for this guard in the shape of protective sandbag walls around the tents, gunpits for sentries, and a well-defended gate at the entrance had generally not been adopted.

The Lechi had begun its armed anti-British campaign in 1940 until just after Yair's murder in early 1942 and renewed it at the end of 1943. The Irgun commenced its revolt in early 1944. The Hagana and Palmach had been coordinating attacks on the British with the Irgun and Lechi since November 1945. British soldiers had been targeted, shot, wounded and killed.Now do you know why the British lost the battle?^

Last Friday, I was recorded for an interview on the water problems out here in Samaria and specifically Shiloh.It aired three days ago here.I learned the German for "settler" is siedler.

Me at our neighborhood emergency water supply

EG wrote to me that

I think that they distorted what you said. After you stated that the water infrastructure goes back to the Brit mandatory days, it seems to me that the female narrator translated your words or conveyed your words in a very distorted manner, or she [or the ARD staff] did not intend to translate what you said correctly or incorrectly.

In a five minute clip, with an interview with two other persons, both by the way, pro-Arab, it is difficult to feel that all you said or the gist of what you intended to get across does get to be heard.

This snippet (via Google Translate) is an example:

The Palestinians should stop being so ideological to argue and help to solve the practical problems.

What I had also told the reporter in that section is that the Arabs refuse to cooperate with environmental issues of pollution, sewage treatment and updating the water pipe infrastructure because no matter what the political resolution, the water has to be preserved and the land has to be protected.Why don't the Arabs cooperate? Wouldn't coexistence improve chances for peace or at least a lessening of the hostility that exists? There's also a bit in there previously on how fast we get help. The water exists, even if there are temporary shortages. So, who is at fault, Israel or the slow-responding or non-responding Palestinian Authority? Or their steadfast refusal to work together on a common problem? Non-recognition doesn't help them.Unfortunately, that message of mine didn't air.Oh, and by the way, we've been requested to severely restrict water use since last night.^

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

A new system protects against multiple entries from Hezbollah in addition to Hamas.America wants the system.Most of the money goes to American defense industries and their employees.What's the question mark for?
^

Monday, July 25, 2016

Lawyer Daniel Seidemann says that in his 20 years of handling Jerusalem residency rights cases, he had never heard of a Palestinian from East Jerusalem living in city’s Jewish, Western half.

If you follow Haaretz, you've read this:

In 2009, Haaretz wrote that east Jerusalem Arabs can buy private/church land in west Jerusalem but complained "Rehavia or Talbieh would in any event be out of the range of most East Jerusalemites' budget."[And then, way down at the end of the 2009 Haaretz article it says,] "Nevertheless, dozens of Palestinian families have moved into Jewish neighborhoods, mainly French Hill and Pisgat Ze'ev [okay, not strictly "West" Jerusalem bu Jewish neighborhoods, nevertheless]. Most are renting, while a few buy apartments without registering them. Lawyers in the field say the law is not always applied, and that if a resident of East Jerusalem were to apply to register the apartment at the ILA [Israel Land Authority], they would not have problems doing so."

Sarhan Ganayem, an Arab Israeli, has lived in Jerusalem settlements for 12 years, first in French Hill and then in Neve Yaakov.

"Really it's not a matter of ideology," said Rawya Mazal, an Israeli Arab realtor who sells or lets properties to Palestinian families in a nearby settlement at French Hill. "It's about convenience, living close to campus or making an investment."

In the working-class areas of Pisgat Ze'ev and Neve Yaacov to the northeast of Jerusalem's Old City, 1 to 2 percent of residents are now Israeli Arab or Palestinian, figures show.

On 2 August 1756, the Contra-Talmudists submitted a manifesto to the Lwów consistory. Claiming to speak on behalf of similarly believing Jews in other countries, 23 representatives stated that the Talmud is blasphemous and contrary to reason and God’s commands. They also demanded a disputation so that they could publicly prove the principles of their faith.The disputation took place in Kamieniec Podolski from 20 to 28 June 1757. The participants included 19 opponents of the Talmud and 40 rabbis. Frank did not take part in the disputation and it is unclear if he had any influence on the formulation of the theses. Following the disputation, Dembowski issued a verdict in favor of the Frankists. The ecclesiastical court dismissed evidence supplied by the Jewish court of Satanów as slander. It imposed a number of financial penalties on the rabbis, ordered the flogging of Jews responsible for wreaking havoc in Lanckorona, and condemned the Talmud as worthless and corrupt, ordering copies of it to be burned in the city square. The court decided that although Judaism offended the Christian faith and authority, it was for the civil authorities to decide if Jews should be tolerated in the commonwealth. At that point it seemed that Sabbatianism would be legally recognized as a legitimate form of Judaism...Circumstances changed, however, with the sudden death of Bishop Dembowski on 9 November 1757: the sectarians unexpectedly found themselves in a sort of limbo between Judaism and Christianity, lacking support and protection from either side. The burning of copies of the Talmud stopped; the campaign against the heretics was renewed with double force; and many of them fled across the Dniester to Turkey, where they joined Frank.

The charge in 1761 was the ritual murder of a Christian child and the Jewish community of Wiślica, near Krasnytaw, was charged with the responsibility.

Several Jews were arrested, among them the two village Rabbis and secular leaders.Under torture, some admitted to such crimes as murder, theft of churches and desecration of the Sacred Host. They were sentenced to death and the method was dismemberment while alive.Offered by the Jesuits the alternative of, if converting to Christianity, that they would be beheaded, four opted to do so. They were baptised, beheaded and then buried after a grand funeral procession through the town led by the local bishop.One Rabbi committed suicide in jail. His body was tied to the tail of a horse and dragged to the town square. There his body was cremated and his ashes dispersed to all corners.P.S.Frankist sayings.^

Thursday, July 21, 2016

I was at the Jerusalem Consulate on Agron Street yesterday and met some friends:

That's the ZOA's Jeff Daube on the far left and Elie Pieprz and his daughter.The occasion was the 240th anniversary of American independence. It was belated, as Consul-General Daniel A. Blome said, in deference to the Ramadan fast month that ended two weeks ago.One interesting bit we caught was the CG's words in his speech, at around 6:50, that he was honored that "friends from Gaza" were present. Were they Palestinian Authority officials (I doubt that as officials were mentioned in the first section of his remarks).? Were they NGO officials? Who?I am not sure that all Gaza-based NGOs have some sort of Hamas affiliation. Hamas is a designated FTO. If I am not mistaken, when Hamas took over in 2007 the consulate was forced to suspend contacts with Gaza even though it is within their consular district. I do not think that is still the case (see this item about "a new $50 million Gaza humanitarian support initiative – Envision Gaza 2020 – provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) West Bank and Gaza Mission in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS)...Envision Gaza 2020, will [also] increase employment opportunities through short-term jobs, paid internships, minor capital investments, and job training") but it would be interesting to know why they were unnamed.And referring to Consulate outreach activities, I did mention to one of the consular staff persons that my particular problem is the seemingly total ignoring of the presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria (I jokingly referred to those areas as the "other Palestine" but I don't think he caught my sardonism) in programs of a social, sports, arts or educational program, event or seminar.A new example is here, from last week:

JERUSALEM – Two professional American basketball players from the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) are traveling July 13-16 through Jerusalem and the West Bank – a trip made possible by the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. The delegation includes players Kelenna Azubuike and Temeka Johnson, as well as three NBA trainers and administrators, who will run clinics for several hundred Palestinian players and coaches.This trip is part of a “sports diplomacy” initiative to connect Americans and Palestinians through a shared love of sports, in this case the sport of basketball. The Department of State’s #SportsUnited program sends American athletes around the world and also brings young international athletes to the United States. The trip is also part of NBA global outreach efforts through the #NBACares program, the league’s global social responsibility program that addresses important social issues in the United States and around the world.

A visit to a Jewish community, I am assuming, would be out of the question unlike this one to Shchem in February, although various other officers and officials have been out my way in Shiloh as well as a women's empowerment event. I have been complaining about this situation for years (as here, and here and here in The Hill). I really think it is a major failure of the State Department (to be clear, I am not in any way accusing local staff over the years in this matter of anything irregular). Directives from Washington in this matter simply encourage extremist Arab assumptions: that no Jews will be around in a "Palestine" (and that is quite obvious regarding Gaza) since if the Consulate ignores or excludes Jews resident in Judea and Samaria now, why should we be there later?Let me make it clear. I am all for sports being used to encourage all peoples to learn the value of rules, that there are limits, that a referee indeed can make a decision that will penalize you, that there are losers and winners. I think Arab youth and coaches, besides the game of basketball, could apply those lessons to other fields of human endeavors.I just don't see why the Consulate excludes, seemingly, the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria from its various programs as well as student grant and aid funds. Having Jews and Arabs learn about basketball and play together could be a tremendous assist (pun?) to peace or at least coexistence or at least mutual tolerance. That would be an amazing contribution to peace for it builds up trust, acceptance and non-rejection of the 'other'. Peace cannot be forced. It need be developed.Peace is not a piece of paper. Peace is actual life and relationships between peoples.^

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Peter Beinart came to Hebron.He came to demonstrate against the "occupation".The real story, however, is here.In short, he and his friends- squatted on property an Arab claims is his (but it isn't and that's another part of the so-called 'occupation' tale)- and they "helped" him by ripping up all his weeds - which is the fodder for his goats and thus deprived him of food for his livestock- and then they conducted a sit down which got their Israeli counterparts arrested, but when they left, theIsraeli were still in jail while they were off to lunch- all there while they were singing civil rights songs.

I’ll never know what it felt like to be in Mississippi in 1964. But last Friday, watching dozens of twenty-something American Jewish kids (and a few older activists) haul junk in Abu Aisha’s yard in Hebron, I felt an unusual sensation: hope.

the dirty little secret of the American Jewish establishment is that its officials know little about Palestinian life under Israeli control.

I don’t think protests like last Friday’s will have a direct impact on Israelis. The protests are too American.

I’ll never forget last Friday afternoon, when we stood outside the settlement that housed the prison where Rothman-Zecher and five other activists had been detained, and welcomed Shabbat by singing Shalom Aleichem and Lecha Dodi. The soldiers and settlers standing in front of us looked at us like we were mad. The Palestinians standing behind us looked confused too, but a Palestinian boy, smiling broadly, nonetheless ran over to us with cups of water.

last Friday, I vowed to come back next year, for the fiftieth anniversary of Israel’s takeover of the West Bank. Instead of 50 Jews, I hope we bring 500. I hope you’re one of them.

Friday, July 15, 2016

On the occasion of the founding conference of the New Zionist Organization:

Jabotinsky Scores Nazis As Revisionist Congress OpensSeptember 9, 1935Denunciation of Nazi persecution of Jews and criticism of the British administration in Palestine were voiced tonight by Vladimir Jabotinsky, president of the World Union of Zionist Revisionists, addressing the opening session last night of the constituent congress of the new Zionist Organization.The congress, initiated by the Revisionists, right-wing Zionists who split away from the main body, opened in the Vienna Concert Hall in the presence of several thousand youths and 310 delegates from 34 countries....Earlier in the day Jabotinsky was the center of a demonostration when he emerged from the Leopoldstadt Synagogue after morning services. An enthusiastic crowd escorted him to his hotel.In his address tonight he declared that he spoke in the name of 700,000 electors.The Revisionist leader emphasized the “tragic failure of emancipation” and the growth of anti-Semitism throughout the world. He stressed the need for fighting for Jewish rights.He scored the British administrative system in Palestine, declaring it is far from being in accordance with the aim of the League of Nations Mandate. He assailed the Palestine government’s immigration policy and asserted that the congress will demand unrestricted Jewish immigration into Palestine.The new organization, Jabotinsky asserted, will definitely oppose the government’s plan for a representative legislative council in Palestine and characterized the project as “treachery to the Jewish people,” warning that it will “transform Palestine into a witch’s cauldron not far from Suez.”He announced that there would later be presented to the congress a ten-year plan for securing a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan by settling one and a half million Jews., Acceptance of the plan by the authorities, he said, would be secured by “mobilization of world conscience.”The new organization, Jabotinsky asserted, will seek not only to build Palestine, but to liquidate the Diaspora. Declaring that the aim of the organization is “the high Zionism,” he explained that the “high Zionism” does not mean the solution of the Diaspora problem by the mere creation of a model state in Palestine, but by the liquidation of the Diaspora with a return of the Jews to their homeland.The Jewish State, he declared, is not the end but only the first step, the second being the return of the people, which will be the solution of the Jewish problem. The third step, he said, will be the final one and will aim at the creation of a national center of culture, radiating its influence all over the world.Jabotinsky pointed out that without a land reserve, without Transjordan, it would be impossible to create agricultural settlements. At present, he said, Palestine’s production consists chiefly of building, but the problem of how the people living in these houses can earn a livelihood remains unsolved.He demanded the promotion of private capital and private initiative in Palestine which, he said, provides 80 per cent of Palestine’s finances, instead of treating them with “insolent antagonism” and the creation of “artificial class war.”The Revisionist leader urged education under religious influence and the settlement of labor disputes by courts instead of by strikes.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

A bill that would expand the reach of Shiloh National Military Park is one step closer to becoming law after it passed through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday.

Sen. Lamar Alexander is a committee member and is the author of the Shiloh National Military Park Boundary Adjustment and Parker's Crossroads Battlefield Designation Act.

“Preserving and protecting these sites will allow future generations to learn their history by walking these fields," Alexander said in a released statement. "Learning from the past helps us become better Americans in the future, and these sites will also provide an opportunity to attract more visitors to Tennessee and strengthen the local economies."

...The bill must be considered by the full Senate before it can be signed into law.

Priests?Oh, the ones who conducted the Temple service.Temple?See how easy it is to counter Temple-Denial.Denial by Abbas.Denial by the Mufti of Jerusalem, the cleric in charge of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein.Denial by Raad Salah.Etc.^

“We think of faith as a source of comfort and understanding but find our expressions of faith sowing division; we believe ourselves to be a tolerant people even as racial, religious, and cultural tensions roil the landscape. And instead of resolving these tensions or mediating these conflicts, our politics fans them, exploits them,and drives us further apart.”

Ah, to be a child having "fun" in Gaza.UPDATENow reported (h/t/= IMRA):

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades launches on Saturday its annual summer training camps in Gaza for over 30,000 middle and high school students.The Brigades said that its summer training camps, Talae Al Tahrir (Vanguards of Liberation) provide the Palestinian youngsters with athletic games, scouts activities, as well as providing religion classes.We prepare the Palestinian generations so they will be fully prepared for defending Palestinian soil and the Palestinian people. The brigades added.

Monday, July 11, 2016

The things, the really odd and nonsensical things, one can find.Like here, where Muslims discuss the Even Shtiyah, the Foundation Stone, over which the Dome of the Rock was built.

The item's author, Ihab Salim, claims as a false assertion that the Crusaders used the circular aperture in the rock to drain the blood of slaughtered animalsThe origin of this false argument is a misunderstanding of the words of historians...who describe procedures for the Crusaders in the Dome of the Rock [and quotes a source]...:

Then continues that

Gen. Salah al-Din Isfahani describes the Dome of the Rock after the liberation [of Jerusalem]: "The rock was where the Crusaders had built for themselves a church and an altar."

Since the word altar in the Islamic religion linked to the slaughter of sacrifice, some had thought that the rock above the altar was used for offerings and the aperture used to drain blood spills....[But] no Crusader traveler said that there was a real process of slaughter and disposal of blood through the opening to the cave.

All well and good.But Jews did slaughter to the north of the altars of the First and Second Temples and then brought the animal parts to be burned on those altars.

What are the locations of the sacrifices? Kodshai Kodashim [sacrifices of the highest degree of sanctity]. They may be slaughtered only on the north-west corner of the altar, and consumed only within the Temple compound by male priests, or burnt entirely] are slaughtered on the north [side of the altar]. [The] bull and [the] goat of Yom Kippur are slaughtered on the north [side of the altar] and their blood is collected in a consecrated vessel on the north [side of the altar]. ..

Self-determination is a sacrosanct principle of national freedom.Jews demanded self-determination as did the Arabs of the Mandate of Palestine.Here it is explained

By 1920, the League of Nations had affirmed the applicability of the right to self-determination to the people of Palestine and decided to establish a temporary Mandatory system to facilitate Palestine's independence in accordance with Article 22 of its Covenant. Article 22 stated that “[c]ertain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory...The United Nations has affirmed this right since at least 1974. When the UN recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the representative of the Palestinian people and granted it observer status, it explicitly recognized that Palestinians constitute a people entitled to self-determination. Numerous General Assembly Resolutions have affirmed this right as particularly applicable to the Palestinian people, including Resolutions 2535 (10 Dec. 1969); 2649 (30 Nov 1970); 3236 (22 Nov 1974); 43/177 (15 Dec. 1988); and 48/94 (20 Dec. 1993). Of particular note is Resolution 3236, which reaffirms and specifies the inalienable rights of Palestinian people in Palestine as including: a) the right to self-determination without external interference;..."

A pseudo-academic treatment is here.Of course, this rather conveniently ignores the fact that whereas the term 'Arab' appears nowhere in this document, you can read this:

The Council of the League of Nations:

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have agreed, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to entrust to a Mandatory selected by the said Powers the administration of the territory of Palestine...the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country; and

Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country; and

...ART. 2.

The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.

ART. 3.

The Mandatory shall, so far as circumstances permit, encourage local autonomy.

ART. 4.

An appropriate Jewish agency shall be recognised as a public body for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Administration of Palestine in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishment of the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine, and, subject always to the control of the Administration to assist and take part in the development of the country.

The Zionist organization, so long as its organization and constitution are in the opinion of the Mandatory appropriate, shall be recognised as such agency. It shall take steps in consultation with His Britannic Majesty's Government to secure the co-operation of all Jews who are willing to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national home.

ART. 5.

The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.

ART. 6.

The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.

Arabs are relegated to a group of citizens who are defined as non-Jews. They have full personal, civic and human rights and liberties, and those must be assured. But the dominant political national character of the country is Jewish. The entire rest of the Middle East was to be and has become Arab and, actually, Muslim Arab as increasing persecution of Christians are severely reducing their numbers throughout the area. Those outside the Mandate, other than Jews, are foreign. Non-Jews are to be awarded local autonomy if they disagree with the Jewish character of the country, it could be inferred.

Self-determination, as proposed by Arabs, is not sympathetic to the Jews, either as individuals or as a national group. Hamas is most forthright. Its Covenant opens with a Quaranic verse:

"Ye are the best nation that hath been raised up unto mankind...And if they who have received the scriptures [i.e., the Jews] had believed, it had surely been the better for them: there are believers among them, but the greater part of them are transgressors...and if they fight against you...they shall not be helped. They are smitten with vileness wheresoever they are found; unless they obtain security by entering into a treaty with Allah...

and continues

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts...Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised...Our enemy relies on the methods of collective punishment. He has deprived people of their homeland and properties, pursued them in their places of exile and gathering, breaking bones, shooting at women, children and old people, with or without a reason. The enemy has opened detention camps where thousands and thousands of people are thrown and kept under sub-human conditions. Added to this, are the demolition of houses, rendering children orphans, meting cruel sentences against thousands of young people, and causing them to spend the best years of their lives in the dungeons of prisons...In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children...We should not forget to remind every Moslem that when the Jews conquered the Holy City in 1967, they stood on the threshold of the Aqsa Mosque and proclaimed that "Mohammed is dead, and his descendants are all women."...Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. "May the cowards never sleep."...Arab and Islamic Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews...

And also two other verses of the Quran are quoted:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews),

1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples.

To be clear, those Germans were the members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the principles were composed by Adolf Hitler and Anton Drexler and presented on 24 February 1920 "to a crowd of almost two thousand and every single point was accepted amid jubilant approval." (Mein Kampf, Volume II, Chapter I).Arabs have some two-dozen countries where they can realize self-determination.They do not have the right to deny Jews our right of self-determination.^

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.